Guys. Lets not turn this into a "I can break this game using this method!" pissing contest. Every game can be broken given enough effort, time, and technology due to the fallibility of human programming and foresight and the fact that most games only have one shot to 'get it right' whereas millions of players have for as long as they care to to break the game.

As suggested before by Jimmy, is that there are so many more options available to the common player compared to what the system is used to handling. Just like how in FFV you have so many options (i.e. Jobs) that there are far more opportunities for the player to find something that wasn't perfectly balanced or was made too effective for the time it is acquired. Whereas in cases like FFIV, where the game's progression and advancement is so ridged and static that developers can more effectively predict the given power level of a particular player's party at any given time and thus plan their events and challenges accordingly.

Both forms of play styles have their advantages as well as their disadvantages such as rigidness's lack of replayability (since your ultimate experience won't change without cheating) but has a better designed challenge curve (as well as allowing game designers to do things like take pages out of a Shonen anime/manga and create a situation where you cant use your most powerful/main character due to a dungeon's gimmick by weakening or disabling him and letting your side dudes take over for a dungeon power hour until the boss where things go pear-shaped due to lacking your big guns thus a sympathetic side character makes their noble last ditch effort to save the party from almost certain doom). While games that grant you more options naturally possess more replayability (maybe this time I'll take a party of Knights, Monks, a Bard, a Thief, a couple of various Mages, and a Hunter instead of a Samurai, a Chemist, two Summoners, and a Mime) but have the greater potential of unchecked exploits (like chucking purchasable/disposable rods at enemies for 15x the damage output you're supposed to possess, as well as making it difficult for designers to craft believable situations where an early unwinnable boss fight is easily revealed to be unwinnable as you've long since exceeded the highest possible amount of HP anything could have at that point in time as you've been chucking rods at it constantly for far more damage output than what should be currently available).

The problem with Awakening is that it made the classic mistake of throwing everything short of the kitchen sink (and to be fair, the capture/dismount mechanics) into the game. And while the systems don't clash with each other like Sword of Mana's system clusterfuck did (didn't help that the core game was based on an OG Gameboy game), you still have excess options like class changing (although not nearly as bad as the DS games where your designated Knight makes for an awesome Hunter since his base Def is solid for early game and he wont miss the Def growth as a Knight since his personal Def growth sucks too much for anything, but it does open up infinite grinding options and less personalized skill sets/functions), the eugenics (although not as bad as GotHW where you had potential fathers who were practically useless as fathers or even detrimental given combinations as siring a Mage with 20% Mag growth as well as characters who were simply deadweight in terms of parentage), and the random items ("Hel~lo Prologue 2 Ephraim's Lance!").

And then there's the DLC which is a veritable fire hose of content and options that can open up options that far exceed anything available in the main game (including content that far surpasses the difficulty available in the main game or the base game's post game).

Ultimately though, this is what happens when you make a game for fans of the series first and foremost. Despite that fact though, for what it is, it is a spectacular game (again, for what it is).

The fact that I can have derpery like surrounding a Fighter with Infantry and watch it helplessly sit there until it blows up, or diverting an otherwise decisive enemy advance with a single APC is the reason I'm gonna have to go with Fire Emblem on this one.

That said, these two are different beasts and scratch different itches (FE is SRPG while AW is pure Strategy).

I'll also admit that we've been too long without a Nintendo Wars of some kind.

I'm less surprised that Zero Dark Thirty lost so much as Armour cleaned up as much as it did. Not many foreign films get nominated best picture of the year.

But seriously though, 2012 was an amazing year for movies. In a normal year, there would only be one or two movies of similar caliber to any one of the nominations this year. Still can't believe that Argo won it though.

Also, I was 50/50 on where to place this since Oscar talk is pretty General Discussion category but Anime, TV, and Movies doesn't get too many new topics either. Either way, mods have the final say on the matter.

The grinding maps are definitely best kept til post game and preferably keeping it down until dealing with the second wave of DLC. Although its a lot easier to go through Golden Gaffe instead of having a pack of people pick up Despoil or Armsthrift and Leif's Blade. Especially if I want to afford all the Master and Second Seals I need for picking up everybody's available skill sets.

That said, the biggest reason why the third DLC pack should be gotten is that the second chapter is the one that nets you the Male DLC reclass item (and the second reason is that the third chapter nets you Paragon which is extremely useful for grinding people up in levels).

Was this game badly received in Japan? Because from the looks alone it does seem pretty nice but I admit I haven't seen much besides some videos where most of them were an anime cutscene and very little gameplay.

You just answered you own question there chief. The entire game is mostly anime cutscenes (specifically that tea party, which is the game's attempt as having Tales of skits) and very little of anything else aside from cut corners and lazy pallet swaps everywhere (NPC are literally cardboard cutouts, the dungeons are ugly, empty, and recycled, battles consist of attacking, dodging, and chewing through wave after wave of the same 5 pallet swapped enemies one at a time, and everything else is menus or that goddamn tea party). Its a game that makes Ar Tonelico 3 look like a professionally made product.

Posting the rest in Code in the unlikely events that both IS decides to remake FE4 (okay, that isn't so unlikely) and that NoA decides to localize it since I may be posting a major plot spoiler for the game or two.

Code:

Welp. Just got done with the DLC chapters this week and first things first. Ced? Really? Ced!? That's way too close to Ned Flanders to justify referring to the guy as Wind God Ced (and I can think of at least one SA goon who's going to be needing a user name change soon), plus it kinda defeats the whole purpose of being named after your home nation's holy weapon when you're not named after your nation's holy weapon (how does anyone get Ced out of Forseti). Also I can't help but to imagine an FFIX Qu leading the bulk of a nation's cavalry based army into a desert to suck and die in a scripted one sided slaughter (along with his idiot wife and child which would put the ambiguous Qu gender debate to bed), plus Cuan had a certain synergy going with Gaebolg.

On the other hand, the debate on which way to localize Nanna's mother's name has finally been settled on the middle ground of Racquesis instead of blatantly swiping a name from one of the three sisters of fate, Lachesis, or the somewhat ironically connotative name of Rackesis (in the sense that she infamously had a rather difficult time keeping it in her panties/bra). Also both of Ayra's kids now have pronounceable names.

The second grinding map's intro was amusing enough though.

Belated Edit: Forgot about the gem of Rolo being localized as Legion. You drive a hard bargain 8-4, but you win this round.

Calling it now, the Bargain Bin Gundam Pilot Original's mid season game upgrade is going to be getting the Least Uninteresting Original's mech after he disappointingly kicks the bucket. A far more interesting development would've involve the Old Man Original taking over the leading Original role while the BBGPO goes on to become Lockon's second identical twin brother.

Alternatively, there's the third option of working alongside other developers to make each others' games based upon their individual IPs. For instance, what Nintendo has done with Pokemon Conquest and is doing with SMT X Fire Emblem.

As hardware gets more powerful, there's greater pressure on developers to fully utilize that hardware. However, to do this, the number of manhours spent on a given project is going to increase.

We are, as far as I know, at the point where a single failed project can destroy a company. Even one that had been doing well previously. And we're close to the point where a project that isn't a failure but still grosses lower than expected can do the same. Essentially I think that hardware is driving up development costs, to the point where developers can't really keep up, and the cost of taking risks is... no longer worth the risk taking.

So what's the tipping point? Are we going to start seeing 70 dollar games this generation?

Or are we going to see a situation where lower-budget, less ornate titles start dominating the market, just by the merit of actually getting released in a timely fashion, rendering the extra hardware oomph irrelevant?

Isn't the latter already happening in Japan though with the numerous iOS and browser based card games?

He had the idea but the Menthos technology of the time wouldn't be ready until long after the writer's lifetime so he left us this blueprint to carry on this writer's work and create what he could not.

What I was talking about with FF8 was when you went into several paragraphs of detail about the plot but also the infamous "icicle impaling" scene that goes completely forgotten.

Ffffffff I was vaguely thinking I was supposed to remember SOMETHING I'd said lately, and THAT was it.

To be fair though, FFVIII forgets about that shortly after Squall's fake out death (aside from making it Edea's Limit Break instead of her tentacle hair (which wasn't even properly animated and made the scene where Riona trying to tag her with the Sorcerers' Collar somewhat less creepy and far less threatening (since it wasn't telekinesis) than it could've been and was respectfully)).